Xiaomi Modular Optical System
Mobile World Congress is underway in Barcelona, Spain. Many recent high-profile announcements have been made at MWC 2025, but less notable gadgets are no less interesting.
The requirement for portability limits the quality of photos taken with a smartphone. To bring phones closer to the capabilities of DSLRs, Xiaomi is resurrecting the ancient idea Sony with magnetic lenses. The company’s modular optical system uses lenses that are actually standalone cameras with sensors larger than those that can be placed in a smartphone.
The images are processed by the phone and are immediately available for use. A smartphone with a huge lens on the back can be a little uncomfortable, but the attachment can be removed and both devices can be put in a pocket or backpack.
Many smartphones nowadays have a large round camera unit with a frame that resembles a watch bezel. But only on the Nubia Focus 2 Ultra does it actually rotate and perform useful functions. The ring can be used to zoom in on a shot or switch between pre-configured filters.
It is not known whether the controller can be used with other programs, but it could be a good steering wheel in a car racing game.
At the exhibition, Infinix demonstrated a smartphone concept with a built-in solar panel on the back. The company uses efficient perovskite solar cells, as do Anker and other well-known brands. Infinix says that its SolarEnergy-Reserving technology can charge the phone at a rate of up to 2 watts under optimal lighting conditions. It is not reported how the manufacturer plans to avoid overheating of the smartphone.
The Newnal AI phone is equipped with an artificial intelligence model that is best adapted to the user’s individual needs. Its training is based on personal information obtained from Meta, Google, as well as other individual data. Of course, there are questions about privacy.All this information is used to create an AI-powered assistant whose window is placed at the top of the split-screen phone. This is a real model, the phone will be released on May 1 and will cost $375.
Folding phones and other gadgets are not the most popular, but the list of their concepts is far from being exhausted. Samsung showed an asymmetrical «phone» in the Flip style that folds in two places, leaving the middle of the screen visible and a larger folding display hidden inside the case. But the most interesting is a Nintendo Switch-style portable console with a hinge in the middle that allows it to fold in half for even better portability.
Apple and Samsung are set to unveil their thinnest smartphones soon, but some manufacturers seem to have already done stranger things. Recently, the world’s thinnest Oppo Find N5 (4.21 mm when unfolded) was released. The single phone Tecno Spark Slim is a bit thicker, but no less interesting. It is 5.75 mm thick with a 5200 mAh battery, while the Galaxy S25 Edge is rumored to have a 6.4 mm thickness. The smooth shapes of the smartphone attract attention, unlike the «chopped» edges of leading brands.
According to the manufacturer, these are wireless headphones that don’t lose connection away from your smartphone or computer. They are powered by Qualcomm’s S7 Pro processor, which is capable of transmitting audio with much higher bandwidth over Wi-Fi. The wireless connection will remain reliable when in range of a Wi-Fi network, but the earbuds can revert to a standard Bluetooth connection when Wi-Fi is not available. The Buds 5 Pro are available now and cost $240, but at launch they are only compatible with Xiaomi 15 and 15 Ultra smartphones.
.Source: The Verge